Hybrid Theory EP - In The End
by The Sh33p
Summary: A look into the mind of Son Gohan, and the motives of Cell Junior during the night after the 26th Tenkaichi Budoukai. Songfic, AU, extreme profanity, one shot, R&R, enjoy!


In The End  
  
**Author`s Note:** Originally I thought this was the Reanimation version, now I`m not too sure. Whatever version it is, it worked well for the story, and so it was used.  
  
**Disclaimer:** I don`t own DBZ, or the rights to any Linkin Park songs.  
  


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Hybrid Theory EP   


**_In The End   
  
  
  
_ It had been a solid eight and a half hours since the tournament ended. Four hours since the end of the party and three hours since he, his mother and still-sleeping little brother had arrived home. Gohan had flown, ChiChi and Goten(one asleep, the other wide awake) had taken the Nimbus alongside him and the family of three had arrived home at around nine in the evening. His mother had been fairly chargrinned at the fact that Icarus had come back again and set himself up next to the front door, snoring lightly in his sleep. She never quite got used to the fact that while other boys just had dogs or even cats, her sons had adopted a 400+ pound purple dragon that could burn down a house or a forest just by belching improperly. It was even more unsettling and/or annoying that Icarus acted like a lapdog or a cat and tended to pounce the entire family from time to time when they were busy.   
  
How she`d adapted to Piccolo over the years was anyone`s guess, but at least he actually paid for the time he was there by helping around the house and even siding with ChiChi in more than one random arguement here or there. Then again, Piccolo also didn`t sling himself into her lap and drench her face with slobber, so that probably had something to do with it all.   
  
For now though, she and Goten were both in their rooms, sleeping. It was around 12:30 PM, and Goten had been thoroughly worn down by the day`s events, as well as an apparent arguement with his imaginary friend. His mother just favored being in bed by around ten, and Gohan just had a weird sleeping schedule. He tended to stay up late half the time, go to bed early the other half, always at random, never a mid-ground. Tonight was one of the nights where he was up late, despite exhaustion from the day`s events and despite a physical urge to sleep .His body was tired, and still a little sore, but his mind was wide awake and going on all cylinders.   
  
He was thinking - he did that a lot when he was up late and alone. Any teen did, Gohan just thought about things bigger than his parents or friends being annoying or things not going how he wanted them to. He was a surprisingly varied guy for his age. He was jaded sometimes, over-emotional at others, depressed here, pleasant and enjoyable there. Tonight was one of those nights where he was neither depressed or emotional, nor was he jaded or pleasant, he was just overwhelmed by curiosity.   
  
A new enemy had arrived today, one he didn`t know whether to attack and try to finish or see if he could co-exist with the rest of the Earth. One he didn`t know whether to hunt like a dog or give a chance. He wasn`t thinking about Dabura, or the worrying things Piccolo had told him about the demon king`s partially exposed goals. He wasn`t thinking about any new enemies on the horizon, or any evil empires seeking to take over the Earth. He was thinking about an entity that had spent it`s time over the past years doing nothing but hiding and training.   
  
He was thinking about Cell Junior.   
  
_ It starts with one  
And multiplies till you  
Can taste the sun and  
Burnt from the sky you tried  
To take it from  
  
"He could have killed me then, he could have ripped me limb from limb, blown me up, burned me alive again, taken the island off the map... But he didn`t,"_ Gohan thought on the matter. He still remembered it in vividly blurred detail as Cell caught the Senzu somehow in his mouth and sprang back up, healed. Good as new and all the rest, only to bend over and laugh in his face like and idiot before leaving. Cell could`ve killed everything right then and there, detonate the island with a Chou Bakuhatsuha or something.   
  
Instead he didn`t. If anything, Cell had been a model of what the Tenkaichi rules wanted. The blue carapaced fighter had come in, followed every rule to the letter, avoided hitting the crowd to try and throw Gohan off even when he could have and then let him live even when Gohan barely won the match. Cell lost the battle but at that moment, he could`ve easily won the war with power to spare. Instead, Cell just walked away from it with a cackle.   
  
It was this which stirred long buried emotions about the first Cell to mind. What if the original Cell and his children, Junior`s brothers(sisters?) had the capability to turn good like Piccolo did. Maybe all it would`ve taken was time before Cell would`ve seen the light.   
  
And maybe Cell was just playing headgames with him to keep him off balance. Gohan honestly didn`t know and he didn`t like it either. He just knew that his time reigning as the single strongest individual alive was now over after about four years, and his time as the most dangerous was over as well. Cell`s power was almost equal to his own, yes. Cell was maybe one punch shy of equaling him, and his speed was one stride faster than Gohan`s own. His stamina was probably greater and his arsenal of moves was far more massive. Cell probably knew everything from super moves like Genki Dama to little known moves like Roshi`s Bankokubikkurishou, nicknamed the Shell Shock since it was so hard to pronounce.   
  
It was downright unnerving really.   
  
_ But what if falls  
There`s no place to run  
Crumbling down it`s so unreal   
  
_ The night sky seemed his only companion at the moment. The room was lit only by one dim lamp serving only to keep his desk lit perfectly, and the window that was usually shut was currently open. The night air was actually pretty soothing for his nerves as he propped his feet up and leaned back in his chair. What was unsettling the most about it was that there was now the possibility that he was really right in his old beliefs that Cell, who`s genes came from so many good people, could`ve been good after a time.   
  
But then Junior could`ve just been playing with his head.   
  
Still staring into the evening sky, Gohan took his feet of his desk and rested his head in his hands, unable to really think straight. Videl was probably asleep, she wouldn`t understand him presently anyway. Dende was probably asleep as well, Piccolo either meditating or sleeping and Krillin was most likely busy celebrating his engagement anniversary with Juuhachigou. His mother would get overly worried, his brother wasn`t old enough, Vegeta didn`t care, Bulma would tell his mother and Trunks was the same as Goten. It was enough to wrench his brain out of his skull from stress.   
  
And where was Cell now? For four years, he had gone by unnoticed by any of Earth`s defenders, but then in one day he arrived from no where, leveled Vegeta flat and gave Gohan the fight of his life in the same day before vanishing again. What if he was outside, right now, in the woods, staring at Gohan with murder in his eyes?   
  
"I need some air," he resolved with a sigh, getting up straight and turning to his closet. Some flying would do him good.   
  
_ They`re dealing you in  
To determine your end  
And sending you back again  
To places you`ve been  
  
_ After a few minutes he had been ready to go, getting on one of the gis Piccolo had given him, the same type that looked like what he wore before he first went Super Saiyan, including the scarf again this time around. Exiting the bedroom, he hopped from the bottom of the frame and landed standing straight before shutting the window behind him. He`d turned his lamp off as well, for all intents and purposes, no one would notice he was gone if he wasn`t that way for long.   
  
_ "Guess a little flight wouldn`t... Hurt..."_ He thought, glancing over his shoulder and narrowing his eyes. Something felt weird and it was only a few hundred feet away at most. One grimace later, he bent his legs down and jumped, covering the distance into the forest before breaking into lengthy strides through the area. He knew it better than he knew the lay-out of his own house these days. He had explored every nook and cranny in the entire area during his childhood, sometimes with his father, sometimes with Piccolo, sometimes alone just to hide from them during training, and sometimes just to avoid boredom.   
  
Diving past another tree, he rounded a fairly large stone and then began to slow down, jumping from branch to branch in a blur before finally coming to a stop a few feet behind a pair of trees, keeping his energy as supressed as possible. He heard nothing but he could sense something that felt like an utter distortion. Like an enormous ki that was being pushed down by a calm that couldn`t quite take off. It was similar to what the non-saiyans who were extremely powerful felt like, since Gohan, Goten, Trunks, Vegeta and all the others who had ever gone Super Saiyan yet learned to hide their ki only needed to stay in their normal forms and keep focused. It was far harder when most, if not all of your available energy was exposed already and had to be willed down while trying to keep the form intact.   
  
"What?" A disturbingly familiar voice echoed behind him. Creeping his head up, he looked into the small clearing to spot the same figure he`d duked it out with earlier in the day. "You?"   
  
"You were expecting someone else?" Cell Junior asked, not turning once in order to face him. "How did you hear me?" Gohan asked while raising his ki back up to levels where he could at least fight if he had to, long enough to get into a more powerful form. "Didn`t, I felt your energy go down and guessed the rest," he replied.   
  
"Oh," Gohan mumbled while frowning. "What do you want?" Cell asked, cutting right to the point while Gohan entered the clearing. "Why are you here?"   
  
"I`ve been here for four years, dumbass." Gohan winced at the information. The one person alive who could plausibly kill him had been in a position to do it whenever Gohan slept. "Piccolo Junior once lived out here, you know. It made for an ironically fitting choice," Cell stated. Gohan still said nothing, a bit concerned over what he`d have to do now that he knew Cell was here.   
  
_ And bending your will  
Until it breaks you and then  
And still they fill their eyes  
With the twilight through the  
Skylight and the highlights  
On a frame of steel  
  
_ With a grunt and a flare, Gohan`s battle aura blazed into existence, rippling up from the ground and drifting above his head. It was golden and it lit the evening just so that one could define colors despite the gold-shift it caused. His hair and eyes remained black though, he was only interested in a few smaller details, such as being prepared if Cell tried to rush him while he was unaware.   
  
"Power back down you moron," Cell ordered, getting to his feet and turning to face Gohan with a growl. "If I intended to kill you here, you`d be dead by now. Along with everyone else, but no," he muttered. "You`re my target," he stated. "I don`t want anyone else to die. Not yet anyway."   
  
Gohan gradually powered back down, ready at a moment`s notice despite himself. "Better. Now what the hell did you come here for?"   
  
"I felt your energy when I was about to go flying," Gohan answered. "You go flying at night?" Cell asked bemusedly. "And you live alone in a meadow meditating all day and night, point?" Gohan replied snappily. "Whatever." Cell shrugged and glared at Gohan all the while, even through the false peace that had seemingly made itself active. "Why did you let me live?" Gohan asked, unable to think of any other question.   
  
"A little fuzzy headed midget told me there was candy in Zimbabwe, satisfied?" Cell asked. The sad thing was that even though he didn`t know it himself, he was actually right about the fuzzy headed midget part. "Not really," Gohan answered unbelievingly, settling himself to lean against a tree. Cell shrugged again and smirked in that same bastardly fashion of sheer arrogance that his father had.   
  
"Because," he began. "If I killed you then, where`s the challenge? If I humiliated, broke you, snapped you in two and killed you, murdered your family and everyone else, what`s the challenge if it comes so easy?" Cell asked. "I enjoyed our battle even more than I ever enjoyed torturing your friends," he explained. "In other words, you`re a perversion of my father`s love of a good fight," Gohan replied. "If that`s what you want to call it, be my guest. I don`t care what you think, I just know that if _anyone_ is going to kill you, it _will_ be me, on _my_ time, at the place of _my_ choosing."   
  
Gohan shook his head. "So sad to see what`s become of all of the potential you and your kind had," he said. "Whatever, why are you still here?" Cell asked. "Because I haven`t left yet?"   
  
Cell didn`t respond, only snorted. The two were silent after that, nothing but a solid staring match.   
  
_ See the brightness of your likeness  
As I write this on a pad  
The way I feel  
  
_ "So..."   
  
"Just go you little maggot."   
  
"Make me, Blubie."   
  
"What the hell inspired you to make that name anyway?" Cell asked annoyedly. "Look in the mirror bug ass," Gohan replied. "Bite me monkey boy," Cell shot back, walking backwards and leaning against a tree after a few more seconds. "No thanks," Gohan answered with a casual tone. "Do you know why you originally beat us all?" Cell asked, apparently having run out of insults at the moment.   
  
"I got mad as hell?"   
  
"More than that. Do you know of all the Earth`s warriors at the time, you were the only one Gero never had any data or DNA from?" Cell asked. "Had my suspicions," Gohan replied. "Of all of the Earth`s warriors, you were the only one who`s moves we knew nothing on, who`s tactics and powers eluded us. Cell didn`t even had a profile on your psychology, and he had twenty years of learning about the minds of all of the Earth`s warriors. He... I even know your mother`s had three nervous breakdowns and your father had a distinct fear of showing his love to you or any others without it being through combat. I even know what are probably the real reasons he stayed in the after life, the ones he wouldn`t tell anyone, even his own wife."   
  
"Eh?"   
  
"Wouldn`t you like to know?" Cell answered with a smile. "Headgames don`t work on me very well Cell," Gohan replied. "You don`t know enough about me to understand that though, do you?" He asked. Cell shrugged. "I understand you more than you know. Gero kept a lot of records you know, right down to footage of a certain... Incident in Old Tokyo, about four or five hundred years ago."   
  
Gohan winced and bit his tongue. "We were never able to identify that warrior or get any of his DNA, or the DNA of the other three golden fighters, or any of the numerous smaller fighters that were there, but then you came along," Cell stated. "I`m betting you took a little sojourn through time during those two days where I couldn`t feel your ki. Tell me, what is it that drove you so insane that you tortured that creature before killing it, hm?" He asked.   
  
"Personal reasons," Gohan answered truthfully. "I`m betting it had to do with the girl that could be seen diving off of a building just before you snapped," Cell replied, digging deep. "Yes. It did, now let`s leave it at that."   
  
Cell chuckled. "Do you know that creature actually served as the basis of Father`s genes? For some reason, it could perfectly assimilate any DNA that was placed with it, making it part of itself and gaining any attributes that came with it, without the downsides," Cell explained. Gohan twitched and clenched one of his fists several times. "Meaning..."   
  
"Meaning indirectly you really did murder your father by allowing that creature to save some of its genes somehow," Cell exclaimed cheerfully, bringing Gohan to stare at the ground briefly. "It broke off one of it`s fingers... I think," he mumbled to himself, smacking his own temple before glaring up at Cell again. "But I could just avenge my own failure and kill you here and now," he stated with a most saiyan-like grin, beginning to power up blindly.   
  
"Do that and we`ll be fighting far too close to your home, what about Goten and ChiChi?" Cell asked. "Shit," Gohan growled, powering back down. "Just go home, as far as I`m concerned this entire mountain is off limits for a battle. Tuck yourself into that nice cozy bed and forget all about the big bad right hand of god and the boot of vengeance that`s going to lodge itself up your ass one day," Cell ordered while moving back to middle of the clearing and sitting back down, that bastardly smile all over his face once again.   
  
"Sweet dreams Gohan, don`t let the boogeyman get you," he stated with disgusting mock-honesty, smiling pleasantly and then shutting his eyes as a small blue aura formed just a few inches off of his skin.   
  
Gohan cringed and took off without another word, blasting straight up into the air and over the clouds in the night sky.   
  
_ Hear the screaming  
In my dreaming as it`s seeming that   
You`ve played your part   
Like your heartless take apart this  
In the darkness while I know that   
  
"Bastard,"_ Gohan thought. _"He didn`t show me mercy at all, he`s just like Cell, just like that fucking **BASTARD CELL**!"_ With a yell he flared his ki into a golden sheen and powered up out of his normal form, blasting over the horizon like a missile.   
  
_ "Always wanting to kill me, maim me, blow up the Earth, torture my friends and family well **FUCK IT**!"_ He thought while blazing a path through the evening air with a sonic boom here and there for added effect. For all intents and purposes, Son Gohan had finally gone over the edge. He wasn`t going to calm down very easily, if at all. "First it was good ol` Unc`a Raditz!" He shouted, throwing a random ki blast through the air and blowing apart a small hill in the countryside. Thankfully, no one was standing on or near it at the time.   
  
"Then that big steroid pumped up jack ass, Nappa!" He added, powering up another ki blast and flinging it out into orbit. It struck an old orbital satellite and blew it out of this universe on impact. "Can`t forget _Prince_ Vegeta either!" He yelled once again, this time causing the cloud beneath him to split apart under the sheer force of his words. "Then along comes the Ginyu Fucks!" He added once again, flinging off yet another ki blast over the horizon. Unwittingly, the attack flashed by a passenger jet and barely avoided killing anyone by a few feet. "And who can forget that lovable _bastard_, Frieza!" He asked, dashing down and touching down in the middle of a field. He didn`t even know where he was, didn`t really care either.   
  
A wave of his arm and half the terrain had been tilted over almost perfectly flat. "Oh, and let`s not forgot _you_, **_Cell_**!" He cursed, powering up yet another ki blast and throwing it errantly in the opposite direction of the flattened terrain. The resulting explosion shook the entire area and the smoke rose up forty or so feet into the air. "God bless that fucking green scaled son of a bitch!" He shouted sarcastically, walking around and slapping his hands to his head with an outright disturbing laugh.   
  
Several clumbs of his hair promptly left his scalp in handfuls a few seconds later and Gohan screamed. "**_I HATE THEM ALL!!! I FUCKING HATE EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU GOD DAMNED BASTARDS! I HOPE YOU`RE BURNING IN HELL RIGHT NOW, YOU HEAR ME?! DO YOU?!_**" He asked, screaming up into the skies as the ground shook once again.   
  
It had all come to fruition. For the second, maybe the third time in his life. The death threats, the torture, the trauma of god knows how many injuries - both physical and psychological, the anguish, the pain, the nightmares, everything had came back and it left him feeling like the universe had enjoyed toying with him.   
  
_ I tried so hard, and got so far  
But in the end, it doesn`t even matter  
I had to fall to lose it all, but in the end, it doesn`t even matter   
  
_ "Don`t I deserve a fucking break?! Don`t I deserve to be happy?! Don`t I deserve a normal life?!" He asked in a chain of words. "_**WELL?! DON`T I?!**_" He asked again at whatever sick fiend was pulling the strings of fate. "Why in the hell can`t I have more than three years without someone trying to kill me?! Why is it every god damn time I start to enjoy life and I start to enjoy the same things my dad did, _something_ or _someone_ just pops up and fucks it up?!" He demanded again.   
  
No answer came.   
  
"Every three or four years since I was a god damn kid, something happens. Saiyans, heart diseases, androids, people from the future, alien Hitlers, mass murdering pirates, demons, mad scientists..." He paused, clenching his teeth while falling forward. In an instant he had fallen back to normal, though now the hair on either side of his head was just a bit thinner. He had also fallen to his knees, and then also his elbows, crying his eyes out to nobody in particular.   
  
"Ever since I was four and a half..."   
  
_ I look down the line and what`s there is not what ought to be   
  
_ "They keep coming..."   
  
_ Held back by the battles they fought for me   
  
_ "My friends and family keep dying..."   
  
_ Calling me to be part of their property   
  
_ "Earth faces some massive, new threat and it always falls to me or someone I love to bite the damn bullet for it..."   
  
_ And now I see that I get no chance   
  
_ "And I never get a single reward, not a single break, not a single chance at a normal life, **_NOTHING_** that I could have..."   
  
His breathing was ragged, his face was slightly moistened and he was making infrequent whimpers, hiccups and choking sounds while gnawing away on his bottom lip. The grass directly beneath his eyes had since become wet from errant tears. "What did I do to deserve this?" He asked in absolute futility. "I can`t leave fighting now, Dad would be disappointed and he left it to me to protect the Earth... And... And Mom would probably be happy but what about everyone else? Piccolo would be mad, Dende would be depressed, Videl would probably think I was a wimp and Goten would think I lost my nerve and Krillin would get paranoid and Vegeta would probably go ballistic and... And... And..."   
  
"God damn it, why can`t I do what **_I_** want without having to worry about them?" He muttered. "This is all driving me insane, I keep dying piece by piece these days and I can`t bring anything I lose back!"   
  
And still, there was no reply. It seemed that the universe had it in for planet Earth and planet Earth didn`t care about it`s current protector. Oh, it had been all grand when his father was taking down the baddies, but then Goku had gone and made one last noble sacrifice and poof. Just like that. Right off the bat, in all of the two seconds it took for him to make that final smile and wink, he was gone. Ten seconds later, his ki had vanished and then, a minute and a half after that, _boom_, here come`s Cell.   
  
"I don`t think I even want this job anymore," he growled to himself, prying chunks of rock and dirt from the ground and puling each into fragments of dust and grain. "Shit... Job? Not like I`m getting paid to kill myself everytime I fight..."   
  
"Everytime I become that... Thing..." He growled again, thinking of that demon beneath his skin. He hated having to go beyond super saiyan, it left him feeling dirty within a few hours and it made him want to just blow _himself_ up somehow to make up for even having it. "Why couldn`t Dad have been the one to go past super saiyan? He had the power, he wasn`t more than a step beneath me at the most..."   
  
_ "He was afraid,"_ Gohan thought. _"He was afraid he`d do exactly what you did,"_ he added at himself. "Dad was a coward then," Gohan sneered, finding this explanation all too plausible from when he`d finally heard just _why_ his father had sent him against Cell. "A god damned coward!" He yelled, almost as if Goku could hear him.   
  
"**_HEY DADDY! YOUR SON`S GOING THROUGH HELL NOW ALL BECAUSE YOU HAD TO GO PLAY MISTER HERO ONE LAST TIME! ISN`T THAT FUNNY?!_**" He asked at Goku, sitting up and staring into the skies. "You get to go to Heaven though, and train all the time... Heh. You were just as bad as Vegeta, weren`t you? You just showed it differently. Instead of getting your power alone, the hard way," he muttered. "You used me to do it. And when that wasn`t good enough, you just stayed dead and let King Kaio help you get stronger. I wonder how strong you are now, D... _Goku_. Strong enough to keep me from ripping your heart out of your chest?" He asked menacingly.   
  
_ I get no break, breaks and snakes  
Quickly lead to mistakes and  
As the tight rope again starts to spin  
I can only hope that they close their eyes  
  
_ "Oh but no... You have to go be the hero again and nobly stay dead so the Earth can live in peace..." He spat on his own father`s name. "Tch... You fuck. You selfish _fuck_. What about Mom? How is it noble and peaceful that she`s got to raise two sons alone? How is it noble and peaceful that she doesn`t even understand one of them and the other looks like a miniature version of the husband the first one got murdered? How is it fair to Goten? He`ll never know you! He`ll never know _any_ father of any kind at all!"   
  
Gohan paused, seething with anger. His eyes were threatening to tinge jade and his hair was gradually wavering around. "And god damn it..."   
  
"**_WHAT ABOUT ME?!_**" He screamed, this time not just shaking the ground, but blowing out the fire he`d started with that last ki blast and causing the entire field around him to turn into a ghostly two foot deep crater, ringed black at the center. It didn`t smoke either, the ground had only been pushed down, not blown up. "You`re no better than Vegeta... Shit, you were worse. At least Vegeta is willing to stay and actually help with his son when he isn`t busy beating himself to death training all the time! Hell, at least Vegeta actually let`s a competent man look after his son with Yamcha. Me? I got stuck with a fucking green skinned tormentor who only shows emotion when he`s either trading punches with me or watching me get killed!"   
  
Gohan choked and coughed briefly before pounding his fists desperately into the ground, almost as if trying to punch himself a grave, or punch the Earth hard enough that Goku would come back to see what was wrong. "Selfish m... Just... Grah, _damn it_."   
  
_ To the twilight through the skylight  
And the highlights on a frame of steel  
See the brightness of your likeness as   
I write this on a pad to the way I feel  
  
_ "Hell, I think I grew up believing Yamcha, Krillin and Piccolo were my fathers instead of you. All you ever did was beat the hell out of me to try and make me strong. You used me, you fucking _**USED ME**_!" He screamed, heaving onto his side and then sitting up again, curled up with his legs just beneath his chin, rocking back and forth. "And what about what you didn`t do? Weren`t there for me when Hotaru died, weren`t there for me when Piccolo killed himself to save me... You weren`t there for me when I _needed_ you. Maybe twice, I can think of two times. Nappa and Recoom. What about Raditz? I had to save you that time. What about Vegeta? Cell crushed three of my ribs and Piccolo was the only one who was going to do a god damn thing to try and save me, you? You just stood there like a fucking _**IDIOT**_ and let it happen, then you finally come to your senses and..."   
  
"Six, seven... Maybe eight minutes later, _I_ save _you_ all over again!" He said again. It was probably one of the few times in Gohan`s life when he had literally willed himself to hate his father. He`d done it before, once or twice, but this time he was going off the hook to the extent that it wasn`t really just one of those 'I hate you, Dad!' rants any kid could have at times. Instead, he was utterly serious. Every fiber in his body was screaming out hateful words over Goku.   
  
And every fiber in his body said it was okay to do just that. Every problem he`d ever had in his life, he was able to somehow trace back to Goku. From Raditz to the Cell Junior he was paranoid over, they were all the same. It all lead back to one man, one myth, one legendary fighter who had been everything to everyone who didn`t matter and nothing but a heart break to the ones that did.   
  
At least that`s how he felt. Gohan`s mental state was so edgy at the moment that he didn`t even know right from wrong anymore, let alone his own thoughts of his father. All it added up to was one big hateful joke.   
  
_ Hear the screaming  
In my dreaming as it`s seeming that   
You`ve played your part   
Like your heartless take apart this  
In the darkness while I know that   
  
_ And then he felt a hard slap hit him across the back of the head. Gohan fell over and then felt a kick into his stomach, rolling over onto his back and glaring up at the same seven foot tall figure that was probably going to haunt his nightmares for months. "Kill me now! Don`t you want this?!"   
  
"Shut up," Cell Junior ordered flatly. "Make me. Come on you big blue bastard, make me!" Gohan yelled, flinging himself back up to his feet. "This is what you wanted, **_ISN`T IT?_** Got the guts to carry through on your threat, huh?" He asked, moving up to where he was pressed chest-to-chest with the larger of the two, trying to push Cell back on anger alone. "No, you little retarded shit, it isn`t," Cell replied, slapping Gohan again and causing the youth to stumble sideways, now bruised across the cheek.   
  
"Then what the hell do you want?" Gohan asked hatefully, glaring over from the side at Cell with murder in his eyes again. "I _want_ my only competition to be clear and level headed. I want that if you`re going to die fighting me - and you _will_ - that you die fighting me at your fullest, _not_ as some little melodramatic dumb fuck just trying for his own suicide."   
  
"No challenge in me now, huh?" Gohan asked. "Exactly runt," Cell replied sharply. "And don`t go blaming your father for it either, or anyone else. It isn`t your father or friends` faults that you just _happen_ to be on everyone`s hit list by default now. Blame those that attack you to begin with, you little twit," Cell ordered. "Hate _us_. Not only does it make you more challenging but I suppose it`d give you a nice outlet for all that pent-up aggression you have, hm?"   
  
_ I tried so hard, and got so far  
But in the end, it doesn`t even matter  
I had to fall to lose it all, but in the end, it doesn`t even matter   
  
_ "I tried that, it got Goku killed," Gohan stated, still refering to his father by first name only. "Your father died because my father was a suicidal fool, but I still love mine anyway," he admitted. "Even if he did nothing for me, knowingly sent me to die and then didn`t give enough of a crap to try and save me from you, I still love him. That`s why I`m going to kill you. One day," Junior explained. "And if I can do that, so can you," he growled.   
  
_ I put my trust  
In you, pushed as far as I can go  
For all this there`s only one thing you should know  
I put my trust in you, pushed as far as I can go  
For all this there`s only one thing you should know   
  
_ "Otherwise you`re a worthless excuse of a fighter, and not even worth killing because you`ll do it yourself."   
  
_ I put my trust in you  
Pushed as far as I can go  
For all this  
There`s only one thing you should know!  
  
_ Gohan smiled and shook his head, perhaps the first good - if not utterly cynical - sign from him in the entire evening. It was the same smile you`d see one someone who just waltzed through a nuclear warzone and seen the faces of their enemies who`d survived. That smile of utter self condemnation mixed with a shred of actual joy to it that something terrible was over.   
  
"Maybe you`re not so bad after all," Gohan said with a shrug. Cell shook his head. "I`m still going to kill you. Don`t you _ever_ forget that," Cell ordered. Gohan laughed outright and wiped his eyes before walking by the blue carapaced warrior ducking under one of his thick black wings in the process. "Thanks, you big ugly shit," he stated with that same chuckle, though Gohan had unwittingly started crying all over again. At least he had calmed down to rational thinking though. That was a plus, right?   
  
"You`re welcome, you little murderous fuck," Cell replied coldly, glaring daggers at Gohan as the teen took to the air and shot over the horizon, headed back home again.   
  
"... But I`m still going to kill you, you little twit."   
  
_ I tried so hard, and got so far  
But in the end, it doesn`t even matter  
I had to fall to lose it all, but in the end, it doesn`t even matter   
  
"Home and rest are what I need right now,"_ Gohan thought, flaring his aura up to a shade of gold but remaining in normal mode while he did so. It at least evaporated the wetness from the tears. A smile, slightly genuine this time, was now present on his face as he soared over Satan City, towards the second star on the right and straight on home to Mount Paozu...   
  


_ End  
  


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_

**Author`s Note:** Oy... Hope I didn`t overkill the foul language and landscape rearranging temper tantrums in that one. *Washes his mouth out with a bar of soap.* Anyway, leave a review please, this is going to have something of a major impact or two on Generations and it`d be nice to get some feedback over it.  
  
_Sh33p_ out.  
  



End file.
